Policy Space Under WTO Law: A Comparative Study Of Trips And Trims In Regulating Development Strategies In India
- IJLLR Journal
- Jun 12
- 2 min read
Krishika Sonthalia, KIIT School of Law
Sridhar Raj Roshan Chaurasia, KIIT School of Law
INTRODUCTION
The World Trade Organization (WTO), founded in 1995, lies at the heart of the multilateral trading system of today and set out to achieve a reasonable level of smooth and predictable international trade through binding agreements by member states. Among these agreements were the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), and the Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMS), both of which are very important in the way development strategies for countries such as India, have unfolded. TRIPS established baseline minimum standards of intellectual property protection in terms of patents, copyrights and trademarks for its member countries. TRIPS also sought to balance the incentive created for innovation with the need to protect public welfare including, of course, access to medicines. TRIPS demands that countries change their laws and regulations governing intellectual property and pharmaceutical patent regimes which has required India to make some substantial reforms particularly moving from process patents to product patents. Concern has been raised about the affordability of medicines as a result of the need to comply with TRIPS. However India has been able to utilize clauses TRIPS affords member states such as compulsory licensing, and having fairly strict criteria for patentability, to ensure access to fairly priced affordable medicines, and, improve the health of its citizenry.
By contrast, TRIMS restricts the policy space for regulating foreign investment by specifically prohibiting trade distorting measures like local content requirements and export performance obligations. TRIMS facilitated inflows of foreign direct investment and integration into global supply chains and influenced India's ability to promote technology transfer and support domestic industries, even in sectors such as automotive manufacturing. When comparing TRIPS and TRIMS in India we can see the tension between global harmonization and national development priorities and how India managed these WTO obligations, while attempting to carve out policy space for inclusive growth.
